Alan Irvine has emerged as a leading contender to take over at Glasgow giants Rangers.

The Canaries' assistant manager is reportedly on a shortlist to replace Mark Warburton, who left the Ibrox club recently in controversial circumstances along with his deputy David Weir.

Glaswegian Irvine joined Alex Neil's backroom staff at Carrow Road ahead of the current Championship season after replacing Gary Holt.

The Daily Express report Rangers' top brass are scheduled to hold talks in London on Tuesday with potential candidates, with former Rangers' boss Alex McLeish still the bookmakers' favourite.

Alan Pardew, Aberdeen chief Derek McInnes and Billy Davies have all been linked with the Gers' vacancy. The 58-year-old Irvine had a brief managerial stint in the Premier League at West Brom in 2014 after forging his coaching reputation in Everton's youth set-up. Rangers are also believed to be keen to appoint a director of football as they look to reel in second-placed Aberdeen, who are six points clear of the Glasgow club, with both well behind runaway leaders Celtic.

City's former academy coach Graeme Murty has been in temporary charge of Rangers for the past two games but the Gers slipped further off the pace in the Scottish Premier League at the weekend with a 2-1 defeat at Dundee United.

Murty joined Rangers last summer as a development coach and was placed in interim charge earlier this month following the sudden departure of Warburton.